Fireflies - The stars on earth
The Fireflies (Lampyridae) are insects of beetle family. They use bioluminescence to light their abdomens to attract mates or prey. This chemically produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red in color. Each species from the large family of fireflies uses a different intervals, intensity and color to some extent to differentiate themselves. Though, they largely hibernate during the winter season, just before the monsoon, they are most active to get their mates. The large congregation of these fireflies around the small streams, marshes and ponds result in one of the best spectacles of nature.
To watch them light up the entire trees in unison but with different intervals is a sight to behold! As this can be observed only during the night, the photographs here are more dark than they otherwise should be. In the childhood, I used to catch hold of these fireflies and watch them glow in the hand with the wonder. Even after decades, that sense of wonder is still there and one can spend nights and nights searching and watching this spectacular 'light show' that is organised by the nature.
Thanks to my friends Vivek Kale for all the guidance, Vivek Deshpande, Vinod Dhamanna for the witty company on several trips to find and photograph this phenomenon.
Fireflies and Stars. As the season to watch the mass congregation of fireflies coincides with the onset of monsoon, getting the stars in the frame is difficult due to continuous passing of clouds.
The firefly tree in the western ghats by the roadside.
It is interesting to see that they prefer a particular type of tree to gather together. The tree they choose lights itself up like a Christmas tree with natural lighting.
Fireflies and milky way. The incredibly lucky sight to see a milky way shining just in the small gap of clouds that was lost again behind thick of clouds a moment later.
Fireflies and milky way. On a different occasion, saw the milky way shining just above a small dispersed lot of fireflies. But, the street light was as bright as it could to sneak in the photograph from the bottom.
The firefly beetle.
All the fireflies take over the leaves of the tree hanging on to its edges. Few of them, keep crawling over the stems and branches and few flying around.
A small light from the cellphone display is enough to illuminate the leaves from the tree.
The firefly bokeh
The firefly zoom burst.
The fireflies on the move.
The firefly matrix. Zooming out during the exposure
The Sperm - the rhythmic movement of fireflies results in some curvaceous patterns.
While few fireflies congregate around the leaves, a few take the branch-walk literally towards other leaves.
The firefly leaves.
The flames. A delicate movement of hand during exposure to get this result.
The firefly dance.
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